Fibered asphalt



UNITED sTAfrEs PATENT OFFICE.

GEPJQHON L. OLIIENSIS, 0F PHILADELPhL-l, PENNSYLVANIA, AND JOHN STROTHEB MILLER, JR, OF RAHWAY, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNORS TO THE BARBER ASPHALT PAVING COMPANY, OF PHILADELPI-ITi-P,

PENNSYLVANIA, A. CORPORATION OF Patented May 18, 1920.

PENNSYLVM'IA. I FIRE-FED ASPHALT.

1,340,181. Specification of Letters Patent.-

No Drawing.

Y to its stability. Various methods of doing this are well'known in the art. -()ur invention relates to the accomplishment of this end by the homeogeneous incorporation with the asphalt of completely separated fibers, producing what may be called fibered asphalt.

Efforts have heretofore been made to accomplish this end, by adding masses of fibers t0 asphalt, but, so far as we are aware, the methods heretofore in use have, because of the fact that the individual fibers are not completely separated, required the incorporation of a very considerable percentage of fiber to obtain the desired increase in cohesiveness in the asphalt, and this considerable proportion of fibrous material thus added, has consequently resulted in a product not liquefiable by heat.

This asphalt product which our invention produces. has the advantage of being liquefiable by heat so that when being fabricated for industrial purposes, as for instance, prepared roofing, it may be poured while liquid, this being a very desirable quality.

lVe accomplish this result by employing dry fibrous material and completely disintegrating the same before it is a-dded'to the asphalt. The dry disintegrated fibers are added slowly to melted asphalt, and incorporated therewith in such a way as to effect perfectly even distribution of the fibers through the asphalt with production of a homogeneous mass of fibered asphalt which has the required cohesion without having lost its capacity for liquefaction.

In practising our invention, we take a suitable asphalt, either natural or artificial, and with or without a suitable flux. The asphalt is melted, requiring for this purpose a temperature of between 300 and 450 Application filed December 27, 1918. Serial No. 268,582.

d=-grees F. \Ve take a dry mass "of felted fibers, such as a piece of roofing felt, and mmpletely disintegrate the same with entire separation of all of the original fibers. It is convenient to accomplish this by the attrition of a mass of roofing felt upon the surface of a fine wire mesh screen, in which case the screen acts both to comminute or grate the dry fibrous mass into its component fibers, and also to prevent the discharge of any portions of fiber not completely disintegrated, and, therefore, not capable of passing between the meshes of the screen. For this purpose, we find that a wire mesh screen having some thirty meshes to the inch will suflice for the proper reduction of roofing felt to a condition of completely separated individual fibers.

The separatedfibers are then slowly and evenly distributed upon the surface of the melted asphalt, and incorporated therewith by moderate stirring or agitation of the same. WVe have discovered that by reason of the complete separation of the fibers, which we have secured, we are able-by incor porating only a small percentage of fiber to the asphalt, to disperse the same so evenly throughout the asphalt as to obtain the desired increase in cohesion of the asphalt by the employment of a very much smaller percentage of fiber than has heretofore been deemed necessary for a similar purpose, and this small percentage of fiber has the advantage of yielding a product which has not lost its capacity for liquefaction.

Thus we find that by adding to melted fiuxed Trinidad Lake asphalt from three to four per cent. of dry fiber, separated as described, we obtain fibered asphalt, highly useful in the roofing and other arts and capable of being fabricated by pouring the material while melted. We would point out that the accomplishment of the even incorporation of the fiber with theasphalt in percentages sufficiently small to accomplish the desired result, without makinga' nonliquefiable product has a two-fold advantage: First the superior utility of the product for many industrial purposes. For the conjunction with regulation of rapidity of the flow. Furthermore, the property of liquefaction of fibered asphalt permits of molding the product by pouring the molten material into molds of various shapes.

Second, the securing of a more perfectly homogeneous product, for, in processes;

which require in order to secure the desired cohesion the addition of more fiber than can be added without loss of the capacity of the asphalt to melt, it is evident that during the latter part of the process of adding the fiber to the asphalt, the latter will have lost its liquid form, and the subsequent addition of fiber must be made to it while solid or semi-solid. In all previous oper-" ations for addin fiber to asphalt of which we have knowle ge, this has been the case. Efiorts have been made to evenly distribute fiber throughout solid or semi-solid asphalt, but it is our belief that this cannot be perfectly; accomplished, but that under such circumstances the fibers pass into the asphalt in bunches or tangled masses, and so remain notwithstanding all efforts to subsequently break up these bunches by .working or kneading the asphalt. As a consequence, the resulting product is not completely homogeneous, contains a larger quantity of fiber than is either necessary or desirable for theaccomplishment of the de-' sired result, with the further disadvantage of producing a non-waterproof product, for

considerable masses of fiber when added to asphalt retain their capacity for absorbing and retaining water, and unless the dispersion of the separated fibers through the asphalt is quite complete, the resulting asphalt is'not wholly water-proof. When the fibers are not completely separated, and

reach a considerablevolume, say twenty per cent; in weight, the asphalt is notably lacking in water-proofing qualities.

Having thus described our invention, We

l Fibered asphalt consisting of asphalt having completely separated individual cohesion but not sufficient to render the asphalt non-liquefiable.

In testimony whereof, we have hereunto signed our names at Zanesville, Ohio, this 10th day of December, 1918.

GER-SHON L. OLIEN'SIS. JOHN STROTHER MILLER, JR.

\Vitnesses as to Gershon L. Oliensi's: W. E. OLIENSIS, p GLADYS M. BOWEN.

Witnesses as to John Strother Miller, J r.:

JAMES H. BELL, E. L. -FULLERTON. 

